Show me the Way
by The Ferryman
Summary: "She's a wannabe hero. Has been from the start, since the night Lung was first brought into custody." In the hospital after Leviathan, knowing the truth of Shadow Stalker's identity and with both Armsmaster and Tattletale threatening the Truce, Taylor proposes a compromise. Because no one can make the wrong decision every time.


Worm is owned by John C. 'Wildbow' McCrae. The song 'Show me the Way' was written by Dennis DeYoung and performed by Styx.

* * *

"_Shut up!" Armsmaster raised his head to shout at her. He stopped, eyes flickering to me. When he spoke again, his voice was almost calm. "You don't know everything."_

No.

"_Her," he pointed a hand at me, "She's not who you think she is."_

_I spoke quickly, "Grue, shut him up."_

_Grue raised his hand. But he didn't blanket Armsmaster in his darkness._

"_She's a wannabe hero. Has been from the start, since the night Lung was first brought into custody."_

_Grue's hand dropped to his side._

"_I met her that night. She said she was a hero, that you Undersiders mistook her for a villain. I didn't think twice about it until she arranged a meeting with me, the night before the bank robbery. Told me she had joined your group as an undercover agent, getting the dirt on you so she could hand that group over to us. Talked to me again the night you raided the fundraiser, out there on the balcony. Told me if I let her go, she'd get the details on your boss to me. Guess she hasn't gotten around to figuring that little detail out, yet."_

* * *

"Shut up," I croaked through a mouth dry as a wood kiln. I licked my lips and carefully enunciated each word. "Everyone shut up."

It was a fragile, brittle silence, but it held long enough for me to catch my breath.

"There has been a great deal of stupidity thrown about in the last five minutes."

"Agreed," Legend said before anyone else could reply.

Out of the corner of my eye Grue nodded.

Everyone else was tense.

"We all need to take a breath and step back before someone says something that can't be recovered from," I continued.

That earned me another breath…

…from everyone except Regent lounging languidly against the nurses' counter who said "Pretty sure we're past that point."

"The Undersiders and I are going to have to deal with what Armsmaster said," I said, ignoring him. "And 'Armsmaster is a dick' isn't going to cut it this time."

The cape in question glowered at me behind his visor. But the slight peace I'd established held even through Grue's terse agreement of "No, it won't."

"It's true though," Regent added. "He pretty much is a dick."

"I met her that night. She said she was a hero, that you Undersiders mistook her for a villain. That it was all a ploy."

That…wasn't quite true. The ploy hadn't come until later, and I certainly hadn't fought Lung just to get an in the way he'd just implied.

"And you did the same thing," I agreed. "Who I wanted to be my first night out didn't matter. I didn't look the part of a hero."

Miss Militia's and Legend's eyes both widened at the point.

"You are going to have to deal with what Armsmaster did, Legend." I continued before Armsmaster could respond. "Likewise, Tattletale's position is a non-starter. None of us can pretend that what's happened here hasn't, but it isn't worth ending the Truce over. Threatening it is a shit move.

"Legend, the Protectorate is the core of the Endbringer fights. If nobody can trust you we are _all_ hosed."

Legend nodded slightly.

"Grue, you're the one who taught me about rep. That kind of rep isn't worth it."

"Agreed," Grue said.

Okay, what next? "But, Legend, the Truce has been going on since before I was born. If it hasn't worked yet, it isn't going to. You need to find something else to try. Maybe Tattletale's info is a good first step. Figure shit out and come at it a different way because that wasn't a fight or a battle, it was…it was a schoolyard brawl with super-powers. A pile-on with brutes and blasters, not a battle with anything resembling a plan."

Legend nodded again.

Redirect. What was it Mom used to say? Don't offer criticism unless you can offer something constructive as well? The Protectorate took the lead so… "I get that you can't predict where they're going to show up, but maybe get some Thinkers figuring out how powers can synergize." What was it Lisa had said? Leviathan could eat a nuke? But that girl with the crossbow had been landing hits. Maybe whatever she did, plus Clockblocker, and my spider webs…

I shook my head. Worry about that latter.

I thought about Sophia Hess lying in the hospital bed and felt…numb. So _much_ made sense. It wasn't Alan Barnes, or not _just_ Alan Barnes, pressuring Winslow and Blackwell. But it all felt…distant. Numb.

"I won't tell…that person who I am because I have no confidence that…that person _won't_ break the rules—Truce, Unwritten, whatever—further."

"You mean you think she'll come after you?" Legend asked.

"Think?" I asked faintly. "No, I don't think she will. I fully _expect_ she would target my civilian identity. Home, family, the whole thing," I said. "Definitely if she thought it'd draw me out. Probably, if she thought it would just hurt me."

"She's a hero!" Armsmaster said.

"No, she's not," I said. "Oh, that's what the Protectorate _calls_ people like her and you. But that's just branding. Public Relations. The same stuff that put your face on my underwear."

I started to add: 'It's convenient to her, a legal shield so she can get her thrills in.' To tell them what a hero really was. To lump Armsmaster in with her and have another go at his reputation. But I held back. I was making progress. However _good_ it would feel to tell them what I thought, it wasn't worth it.

Would it have been fair to Armsmaster? Whatever else he was, he was a dick. And he'd honestly thought he'd had a chance. And if it had worked it would have been worthwhile. Even if I'd died and knowing what it'd do to Dad, if it had worked and _finally_ killed one of those things? Yeah. It would have been worth it. But throwing that in his face would have been almost as big a dick-move as all that he'd ever made combined.

"So where does that leave us?" Miss Militia asked.

"I don't know," I said. "I'm willing to compromise, to bargain, if someone has a good starting point."

Tattletale laughed, then.

"I don't see how this is a laughing matter," Armsmaster said.

"Sure it is. She tells someone else as proxy." Tattletale stopped laughing abruptly. "Fuck me."

"What?" Grue asked.

"If I hadn't figured out what he'd done, _he_'d have used—"

"Tattletale," I said sharply. "Help the situation or be quiet. Please."

"That's it?" Legend asked.

"Pretty much," I said. "It's acceptable to me if we can come up with someone we both agree on. Hell, I'll even give a full and complete accounting."

"And your team?" he asked.

"I won't," I said. Lisa started to open her mouth and I turned to look at her full-on until she closed her mouth and took a half-step back. I turned back to Legend. "I won't tell them. But… They know some of it already. Maybe enough to figure it out on their own."

I turned and looked squarely at Grue. "But they will also keep their mouths shut if they figure it out."

"Regardless of your future position with the Undersiders?" Miss Militia asked.

Bitch growled softly and Regent shrugged.

Grue started at me for a while, but then chopped a single nod and offered a terse "Yes." He turned away from me and addressed the heroes. "She's right. A fight at this point and everyone loses. Regardless of Skitter's continued…alignment with us, or not, we'll abide by any agreement reached here. But with the understanding that we'll leave it alone so long as the favor is returned. We'll hold to the unwritten rules, even if we figure it out. But if Skitter's home or family are attacked—"

"You'll return the favor?" Armsmaster said.

"We'll let everyone know and let the community make their own judgements."

"Bad history?" Legend asked.

"In our civilian lives?" I asked.

"Yes."

It was tempting to say 'attempted murder.'

What I said instead was: "Bad enough it's probably a _good_ thing I didn't join the Wards."

That got a reaction from the Undersiders and all three of the Protectorate heroes. But Miss Militia had been in the first group of Wards, hadn't she? And Legend had been to them what Armsmaster was to Brockton Bay.

I turned back to Legend. "You'd be my first choice, but it can't be you."

"It needs to be someone local."

"Not quite the reason I was thinking of, but a good point."

"Miss Militia?"

"She was his second. No offense, but I'm questioning my belief in my childhood heroes right now."

She started to reply. Stopped. "That's understandable," she said finally.

"Director Piggot?" Legend suggested. "Going to the PRT is a bit out of the box, but—"

Either she was complicit in the coverup, or had created an office that enabled it. If she was a real human being she'd probably flip out over what Sophia had done, but that was a big 'if,' the PRT had a lot of institutional inertia, and that woman at the school hadn't been Sophia's mother. Some kind of PRT agent, maybe? "No dice. She's a sworn federal law enforcement officer. It goes with the PRT badge. The unwritten rules are that. She'd be legally obligated to show up at my house and arrest me." I couldn't come up with a good counter-offer, though. So… "Panacea?"

"Panacea?" Miss Militia asked. "She's not Protectorate."

"She is local. A hero," I said. And a non-combatant so almost certainly to be rejected.

"And she's one that everyone trusts to keep her mouth shut," Lisa said. I turned and glared at her over my shoulder.

"Beg pardon?" Legend asked, looking at Tattletale.

"Seriously?" I demanded. "Stop helping!"

"Medical professional," Tattletale said, grinning at me because she knew what I thought she was going to say. She probably had intended to say whatever it was anyway, and had this tucked away to one up me. "The expectation you'll keep embarrassing secrets goes with the fancy lab coat or robes."

Legend half-laughed at that. But then he shook his head. "I'd prefer if it was a member of the Protectorate."

"All right," I said. "Tell me which one I can trust?"

"Any of them," he said.

"Tell me which one you would have told me I can trust if I'd asked before Tattletale's little surprise?"

Legend gave me a pained look.

"Now, Amy Dallon? I'm pretty sure I can trust her—" to be a snarky little bitch who hates my guts and won't hesitate to screw me over given an opportunity "—after all, everyone knows how New Wave is all about cape accountability."

I looked at Panacea and felt a vicious thrill for the wide-eyed look she was giving me. But then her eyes narrowed and she nodded slightly. Well played.

"I agree with Legend," Miss Militia said. "Perhaps Assault—"

"Legend," I said. "Him and Panacea both. It'd give you a local and a member of the Protectorate."

Legend gave me a thoughtful look and smiled slightly.

"And it makes you the reasonable one for offering to unmask to two people," Armsmaster said.

"And it makes me look intelligent by not unmasking to the local Protectorate," I rebutted.

Legend's smile faltered slightly but then he nodded. "Agreed."

"Agreed," I said, and we both turned to look expectantly at Amy.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," she snarked. "Fine. If we can decide where to meet."

"My lair?" I suggested. "It has the highest density of black widows in the world. Nobody will bother us."

"Pass," Legend said instantly. "PRT Headquarters."

"You must be joking," I said. I'd mostly offered my lair to be able to reject walking into the PRT out of hand.

"For all the… You can use our house," Lady Photon interjected, looking better than she had when she and Laserdream had rescued me. "We'll make sure you aren't disturbed."

"Right," I said. "Tomorrow, say, early afternoon?"

"One?" Lady Photon said. She pulled out a business card and handed it to me. "Legend?" she offered him another. "Any damage—"

"The Protectorate will pay any damages…and then fine Skitter to cover them."

"Great!" I said. "One question for Amy before we all go our separate ways. Why are maggots and leeches being deliberately placed on people?"

Everyone stared at me.

"Hello? Bug girl?" I asked. "There's a bedbug infestation on the second floor, a couple of people on the first have lice, and I can feel maggots being moved around too quickly to be on their own and I'm not moving them so…"

"Debridement," Amy said.

I looked at her quizzically which was, of course, ruined by my mask. "Isn't that what happens on wedding nights?"

Legend choked as Regent began snickering.

"Well, except Legend's, of course," I said.

Amy rolled her eyes. "They eat necrotic tissue."

"Dead flesh, yes," I said. "They're maggots and that's what maggots do. But—"

"Dead flesh gets in the way of both my powers and natural healing. Cleaning the wound makes it easier. It also keeps the dead tissue from infecting the living if they have to, or want to, heal the normal way."

"So you put maggots on people? That's disgusting," I said. "I'm not talking about a handful. There's nearly _fifty_ of them on one person, and that's not the most."

"The recommended concentration is ten per square centimeter," Amy shrugged.

"That's…huh," I said. "A centimeter is what, about four-tenths of an inch? That's…low."

Amy frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the wound is more like…" I made a circle about the size of a half-dollar. "There should be more than seventy at that density."

Amy glared at me, swore, then crossed to me in three great strides, grabbed my arm, and tugged.

"Excuse me?"

"You're done with her, Legend?" she asked.

He blinked. "For now?"

"Good," she said, pulling me away.

"We'll talk tonight," I said, staring hard at Lisa even as Amy pulled me away, but she nodded.

Amy pushed me past the elevator to the stairs. "Need to keep the lifts free for emergencies," she said.

"What's this about?" I asked as we went down the stairs.

No response.

"And the leeches?"

"Leech saliva has anesthetizing, anti-inflammatory, and vasodilating properties."

"You're making that up," I said.

When we got off the stairs she paused. You see hospitals or makeshift wards in movies where people are on beds in the halls. Here it was real. They didn't run the full length of the walls, but there were more than one or two. But then Amy gritted her teeth and pulled me down the hall, breaking her stride only long enough to stare into each room as she past it.

Finding what, or who, she was looking for she stopped outside of one until a doctor—an older man with steel-colored hair, blue eyes, and skin heavily crinkled from utterly absent smiles—came out. "Amy? I thought I told you to take a couple hours?"

"In a bit. We need to talk."

He gave me an odd look, but we both followed Amy to a hall without patients and she pulled us into the first unoccupied office. "I know we're running out of maggots," she said.

"Excuse me, _who_ knows?" I asked.

"I believe I'm missing something," the doctor said. "I am Doctor Montenegro."

"Skitter," I said.

"She's a villain," Amy said impatiently.

"Allegedly," I added.

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"I can control arthropods and simple worms," I said.

He blinked at me. "That would be a huge help. We have—"

"A couple of burgeoning infestations that you know about, probably several that you don't. I can either kick them out, or walk them into the incinerator, if you can get people not to panic."

"I'll see what I can do," he agreed.

Amy stamped her foot.

"Right," I said. "I asked Amy about the maggots you were putting on people—"

"You're running out, starting to ration them," Amy said.

"Yes, but how did you know?" he asked her.

"Bug control," I repeated. "Amy told me the recommended density, I figured it was low…"

"That would do it, wouldn't it?" he asked.

"She can make more," Amy said.

"Arthropod _control_," I said. "I can't wave my hand and conjure them out of thin air."

"But you can make them lay eggs," she said snidely. "Try to keep up, Bank Robber."

"You don't just need me to have flies lay eggs in people, do you?" I asked. "Because I want hero-points if I do."

"Seriously?" Amy demanded. "You hold a bank hostage with the threat of black widow bites, but _now_ you want hero points?"

"First," I said. "We needed a way to keep anyone from doing something that would get people hurt. Second, it was me or Bitch's dogs. Which are, yes, trained very well, but trained rather than controlled. And I didn't know if someone was allergic or not, and people only react to bug bites after they've actually been bitten. And I had epi-pens in case that happened."

"Which, incidentally, would have worked fine for dog allergies too," the doc said, breaking back into our discussion. "You have that much fine control?"

"More," I said. I gestured to my costume. "Black Widow dragline silk is the second strongest spider silk in the world."

He blinked at me. "That… That is a lot of spider web," he said slowly.

"Yeah," I said. "Let me guess, you want some for something."

"There have been studies… Antiseptic properties, rich in vitamin K to promote clotting… Production has always been the limiting factor."

"Let's talk maggots first," I said. "Now, as I said, I'm not going to have flies lay eggs in people without serious hero-points."

"Good God no," he said. "Not directly in people."

"Okay then. What do you need?"

"Eggs," the Doc said. "Lots of eggs. We can sterilize them—"

"Won't that kill the larva inside?"

"Some of them, certainly, even many. But enough will survive. And that's if we use a chemical treatment, there are others. Then they eat sterile food until they are large enough to be used. The problem is that normally they must be procured from a laboratory or medical supply company. We have the resources to prepare them, but not to gather eggs in sufficient quantities."

"Which is where I come in," I finished. "Got a place in mind?"

* * *

"What is this?" Alec complained as I dropped stacked pizza boxes and bottles of soda onto the table in our lair. "Why are we—"

"Because," I said shortly, "I'm not going into that meeting without a plan. What remains to be seen is if it is my plan, or _our_ plan."

"And you expect us to trust you?" he asked. The lack of heat, energy, apparent indifference in his tone, and the lackadaisical way he moped probably would have fooled me when I first met him. But Alec had very serious trust issues.

Just like to Rachel I'd betrayed her pack.

Brian and Lisa were harder to read.

"That depends on whether or not you trust Lisa," I said evenly as I stared at her. She flinched, which spiked a bitter-hot thrill of pleasure which made her flinch again. "She knew when she first saw me that I was socially isolated and pathetically grateful to have a friend. That the only thing I had really going for me was a pipe dream of the kind of cape I'd be."

"You weren't that bad," she said.

"I was worse?" I asked.

"Okay, fine," she huffed. "You weren't _quite_ that bad."

"Lisa," Brian said.

She shrugged. "I knew she thought she had this undercover thing all worked out. Also that she had no training or experience and, yeah, desperately needed a friend. Going native was practically a given."

"Look, it doesn't matter," I said. "You can't trust me even if I said I wanted to go full black-hat."

"I'll thank you not to put words in my mouth," Brian said.

"You taught me about rep, Brian," I said. "You told me when I joined that the Undersiders were just in the cops-and-robbers game. That no one, no civilians, got hurt. Remember? That was the stipulation I agreed to."

"I remember," he said coolly.

"But we did hurt a civilian. We didn't just rob a bank, we aided a kidnapping."

"That wasn't us."

"Of a parahuman."

"That wasn't—"

"In her _civilian_ identity."

"Damnit, Taylor. I said that wasn't us!"

"Tell yourself that if it helps you sleep better," I said. "We enabled it. We were part of the kidnapping the moment we agreed to be the decoy force."

"That's a weak excuse," Brian said. "We didn't know."

"Is that better or worse than 'just following orders?'"

"Heard lamer," Alec offered.

"Would you seriously walk away over that?"

"I have to," I said. "I'd be staying because you're my friends not…other reasons. But if I did stay, where would it stop? If I decide to do only _our_ jobs, how long before our 'boss' tracked down my father to use as leverage?"

"You don't know that," Brian said.

"He's already violated the unwritten rules in about as gratuitous and public a way as possible," I shot back. "Our boss used us to kidnap a preteen girl. Against that I have no evidence that he has our best interest at heart, or that he won't throw us under a train the first chance it might benefit him or that we might be a hindrance."

"He approached me, in my civilian identity, and offered me a choice, Brian," Lisa said softly. "_Plata o plomo_."

* * *

"I see the gang's still together," Amy said when we arrived outside her aunt's house.

"They agreed to bring me here and back," I said. "Trust is a little hard to come by."

"No honor between thieves?"

"I doubt there's much to be found among the heroes."

"You will, I hope, not take it personally if I dispute that?" Legend asked.

I shrugged. "Dispute away." Then I deliberately turned my back on him to face Lady Photon. Laserdream was sitting on the roof. "Thank you for letting us meet here."

She chopped a nod. Not at all thrilled by the Undersiders. From what I went through when Mom was killed, she was probably grateful for something to concentrate on.

"Can Tattletale check for listening devices?"

"We aren't recording you," she said stiffly.

"It isn't New Wave I distrust." I couldn't see the other members of New Wave. It made me wonder where they were.

That got me her full attention for about five seconds before she nodded in agreement.

Legend started to object, but then sighed.

Lisa went in, then came out a while later. "No listening devices," she said shortly. "That I could detect, anyway. Their tinkertech could be better than my tinkertech, or they could be set up with a remote viewing Thinker or something."

"That's fine," I said.

"I put tremblers on the windows in case someone tries bouncing a laser off them. They have their choice of beginning bagpiper, or a really raw amateur playing a polka on an accordion."

We went in. Amy prepared coffee for her and Legend. Gave me a disgusted look, but put on water and hunted out an ancient, dusty box of the heresy that are tea bags when I asked. While we waited for water to heat I ducked into a bathroom to change into civies.

I came back out and we sat at the table. I pulled off my mask. The tea was musty, old, and I could taste the paper. Oh well.

"May name is Taylor Hebert," I said.

"Great. Can you go?" Amy asked.

I really wanted to strangle her. It was like listening to Madison if she traded the cutesy-snide act for bitchy-sarcastic-snarkfest.

"We really can't," I said. "You see, my understanding is that this whole thing is about reciprocity." Legend nodded slightly. "Skitter and Taylor have collective knowledge about Shadow Stalker's various identities. Simply unmasking doesn't balance things."

"Uh-huh," Amy said. "And the real reason?"

"Cape accountability. Head of the Protectorate. I wasn't happy with being a villain in the first place. I figure this is my best chance to change that and if I don't I won't."

"Suuuure," Amy drawled. "You…what, robbed a bank by accident?"

"No. The first meaningful social connections I'd had in almost two years happened to decide to rob a bank."

I reached a hand across the table to her.

"If you expect me to hold your hand while you tell a sob-story—"

"I expect you to hold my hand and tell Legend whether or not I'm lying." She stared at me. "Oh please, you could watch my endorphins yesterday and read my emotions, but you mean you can't do brainwaves to say whether or not I'm lying."

Stare turned to glare as Legend gave her an interested look.

"Bitch," she muttered. "Fine."

I had to start at Mom's death. To understand my trigger, they needed to know about the Trio, and to understand that it meant starting with my relationship with Emma. Amy gave me a bored look but suffered through it aside from a grimace of distaste when I got to the part about the bullying.

Legend had pretty obviously been briefed on Shadow Stalker's identity at some point because he visibly reacted when I mentioned coming back from nature camp and Emma having a new best friend. But Amy had been looking at me and missed it. She didn't miss my reaction to it, but Legend had schooled his face by the time Amy had looked at him.

I breezed through freshman year. Detailed enough to make it clear the administration wasn't going to stop things. Left it implied that it was Alan Barnes' fault. I wasn't sure how true that was anymore. The PRT wouldn't have been involved then. Could Sophia had threatened Blackwell, or did Blackwell have her own motives for giving Sophia—or Shadow Stalker—liberty to do as she pleased? Given how much worse this year had been, the PRT pretty obviously _had_ given her additional cover however it went.

I'd brought my journal and copies of my school email accounts and dropped them on the table as I started this year.

"Shit," Amy said when I got to my trigger event. "Fuck. _I remember you!_"

I blinked at her. "You do?"

"Do you have any idea how rare it is for something really strange to come into a hospital? Traffic accidents, falls, ODs, shootings, stuff so common it all runs together. Someone gets shoved into a locker filled with biowaste and left to marinate for a couple hours? _That_ kind of thing makes its rounds. I dropped a message to be notified if you came back positive for any of the stuff you'd been exposed to just so I could take a look."

"Oh," I said. "Thanks, I guess."

She shrugged hard as Legend blinked at me.

"I don't understand," he admitted. "Where would someone even begin to get things like that?"

"Winslow is probably the biggest gang recruitment center in Brockton Bay. Gangs, poverty, Merchants, drugs, bloodborne pathogens, teen pregnancy… It all goes together. Didn't you know?"

Amy was staring at me intently. "Lung. Early April. Armsmaster brought him in, but that was your work, wasn't it?"

"My first night out," I said. "I overheard him ordering his men to kill some kids. Turns out the 'kids' I saved were the Undersiders. I did most of the work, not enough. They returned the favor, but left before Armsmaster could arrive."

"He took credit for it," Legend said.

"I know. I…wasn't very hard to convince. He warned of retaliation. But…he wanted credit, and I wanted to be in his good graces."

"You nearly killed him." Amy glared at me. "It's like you exist to make work for me."

"Did you miss the part where he normally regenerates?" I snarked back. "Armsmaster shut that part of his powers down with an overdone tranq he cooked up, and then blamed me for it. When we met, later, I tried to call in the favor of giving him credit for Lung and he said that I'd given him a dying man and implied I had done so to mar his record or something."

Legend looked at Amy who shrugged in reply before nodding agreement. "It was bug venom. I've seen enough of it now to know what it is. Armsmaster told me the only stuff in him of note was the tranquilizer. At the time I thought it was metabolized Tinker-juice."

"And the Undersiders,' Legend said, "you went looking for friends and found them?"

"I went…I don't know what I was looking for. I'd had plans. Sketched out options and debated pros and cons, only the trio destroyed them so I decided to fuck it all and wing it, then accepted the first offer of friendship that I'd seen in two years."

"Great. That's just…" she made a disgusted sound. "Doesn't explain Shadow Stalker's place in all this."

"During Bakuda's little terror campaign, Stalker and Battery were watching the mall," Legend's eyes opened fractionally. He'd been pacing through the journal, but…yeah, the incident had probably been logged. By Battery, if not Sophia. So he probably knew the date. I turned back to Amy. "I happened to run into Emma, and when she opened her mouth I finally had had enough and slugged her. Once. Stalker arrested me."

"No way. There's more to it than that."

Legend looked from Amy to give me a warning look.

"Since this is about reciprocity for knowing Shadow Stalker's civilian identity, I probably shouldn't reveal it to you."

"Thank you," Legend said.

"To the best of my knowledge Emma Barnes and Madison Clements aren't the civilian identity of Shadow Stalker."

Legend facepalmed as Amy barked a laugh.

After a moment Legend looked up. "Why did you do that?"

"Amy's been watching my brain chemistry. Matching them wouldn't be hard. Three tormentors, three categories: the annoyance, the traitor, the 'hero.'" I didn't even try to pretend I wasn't bitter. "Now you can blame me for letting her know. It wouldn't be the first time."

"No," Legend said. "Not this time. I'll see Director Piggot—"

"And do what, exactly?" I asked. "The bullying predates the PRT, but she was investigated before she joined the Wards."

"She joined the Wards _because_ she was investigated," Amy said tightly. "She killed a couple of people. Nearly killed more than a couple more if not for me and my colleagues."

"A student was trapped in a locker with biohazardous waste at the same school as a Ward and the PRT didn't investigate that at all?" I asked, pulling away from Amy. I wrapped both hands around my tea mug to try and steady myself. "The BBPD didn't investigate the school. CPS investigated Dad, but not the school. Dad couldn't find a lawyer willing to sue the school."

Amy's face had gone blank when I said the PRT hadn't investigate. As I listed the others it went from blank to very, very cold.

"And then after that altercation at the mall. Dad and I laid it all out in front of Principal Blackwell. The journal. The emails. The woman who came in with _her_ wasn't her mother." I looked at Amy, then at Legend. "Some kind of parole officer? A handler? The PRT didn't do anything to her after that meeting. The emails should have gotten the FBI involved, but they didn't. Blackwell spent almost as much time staring at the woman who came in with Sophia as she did Alan. They shut the whole thing down. Nothing happened.

"For that matter, Stalker's PRT/Wards page lists her only ammunition as Tinker-derived tranquilizers in nonlethal bolts."

"It was a stipulation of her probation," Legend said tersely.

"She attacked Grue with hunting broadheads. After she joined the Wards. Regent still complains about the couch they had to toss because of the blood. Can you say for a fact that there haven't been others?"

Neither replied.

"Maybe Piggot, or someone, thinks having 'Shadow Stalker' is more valuable to the PRT than a random teenage girl with failing grades on the verge of dropping out. Or that maybe that said girl is a good trade for keeping the PRT's squeaky-clean image. Or both. Whichever."

"If you knew Emily Piggot a tenth as well as I do, you wouldn't make that accusation," Legend said coolly.

"Everything I've heard says she's competent, and demands competence from her organization and personnel," I said.

Legend nodded warily.

"So, she either made the call, or is deliberately keeping herself uninformed, or her people are deliberately managing her information flow." A sudden though occurred to me. "Well…no, that isn't true, is it? Someone else could have made the decision and she's the one having to enforce it."

"What, exactly, do you want?" Legend asked.

"Excuse me?"

"You unmasked and gave us your name, that was really all that was required," he said. "The background explained why you didn't unmask to her. But the rest of it— Yes, you were sorely treated. But you also put it before an organization that is famous for stressing cape accountability, but you also used the one member who is most recognized globally _and_, among villains, for keeping her mouth shut. So…what do you want?"

"There's a lot I want. Money isn't part of it."

"Shadow Stalker—"

"No! God!" I wanted to scream. "This isn't, this _shouldn't_ be about the Protectorate or PRT or whoever sweeping a problem under the rug because it got it's hand slapped. It should have been about doing its job so that what Sophia did to me didn't happen in the first place!"

"I actually agree," Legend said. "But—"

"But this wasn't the only time," I said. "People are being called villains because their trigger event kills the person who caused them to trigger."

"What?" Amy asked.

"People are being labelled villain for things they do when Mastered. And do you really want to tell me that what happened to Canary was 'just?'"

Legend bit back a remark and sat back.

I took a deep breath. What did I really want? The Undersiders and I had discussed it, sort of. The problem, of course, was Coil.

And how much each of them trusted me after the rapid disclosures.

And how much I could trust the two people sitting across from me.

"I want the PRT, and the Protectorate, to clean themselves up. Or better, have the FBI or someone go through and make sure they _are_ clean. I told you about me. I told you about people being branded villains for things outside their control. I asked you about Canary. I know at least some power classifications are being misapplied, at least to the point of being justified in such a way to make certain powers politically palatable for heroes. But it could mean someone going the other way to make it easier to get convictions."

"Are these issues local?"

"One of them happened in Canada, the other an incident up in Maine, Canary was in Boston, so no."

"I see," Legend said. "Go on."

"There's a local villain, Coil."

"Small time," Amy said.

"He has a full-up James Bond-villain base, mercenaries armed with Tinkertech energy weapons, and at least two nominally independent teams of capes under his control. And… Look, he kidnapped at least one parahuman in her civilian identity, made threats against other civilian identities to coerce parahumans to work for him, and was responsible for releasing the civilian identities of the Empire Eighty-Eight."

Amy blanched so hard her freckles turned white and Legend sucked in a breath.

"You asked what I want, Legend. I want that. I want the PRT and Protectorate to be heroes. To at least try to live up to the high ideal that you set for us. And I want help taking Coil down, freeing Dinah Alcott, and rebranding the Undersiders. At least individually if not as a group."

"Just that?"

"Tattletale was given the choice of employment or a bullet. Regent and Bitch aren't really functional in mainstream society partially because of their powers and how they got them; partially because the PRT and Protectorate didn't think they should have an honest chance. Grue wants to protect family. I ended up with them because I effectively had zero social connections for the better part of a year and a half in large part because of Sophia Hess."

"What a fucking mess," Amy said after Legend had left.

"Yep," I agreed.

"Y'know, most don't try to become heroes by joining up with villains. Bank robber."

"You think things would be better if I'd joined the Wards?"

"You'd have hated it. They would have left you in Winslow to avoid drawing attention, and would have given Stalker a slap on the wrist for the same reason. I'd be stuck fixing you and Shadow Stalker up after every time you tried to kill each other 'sparring.' If you managed to make it to three weeks without being kicked out I'd give even odds of you and Vista leaving to start your own team though. That might have been entertaining."

"New Wave, then?"

"Now _that_ would have been fun," Amy said with the first truly honest grin I'd seen her use. "Carol would have hated it for…pretty much every reason, actually. Vicky and Crystal would have been all for it. And Eric would have loved to have a girl he wasn't related to on the team.

"_Shit_."

I didn't say anything. Amy had just lost an uncle and a cousin.

"Does it get better?" she asked suddenly.

"Not really," I said. "Pretty much everything is normal. Anger, rage, hysterical laughter… After a while you learn how to function again." I thought about Dad and winced. "Or you don't."

"Shit." Amy dipped a hand into her robes and came out with a pack of cigarettes. "Did you know Legend smoked?"

"No," I said. "Why?"

She gave me a flat look.

"Oh. Huh, uh, learn something new every day?"

That got me an eyeroll as she lit up.

"Do you really think Legend is going to help you?" Amy asked.

It was pretty impressive how she was able to stress words without putting any actual stress on them. "Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it's like the song says… 'all the heroes and legends I knew as I child, have fallen to idols of clay.'"

"Well that's not depressing at all," Amy said.

* * *

Legend looked across the plain white table. "There's a question I want to ask you."

"Yes," said the woman sitting across the table.

"The problem is, are you answering me honestly, or giving me the answer your power tells you that you need to tell me to get me to do whatever the hell you want? Are you even capable of breaking free of your power long enough for _Fortuna_ to answer a question without resorting to a Path?"

"Of course. I can't run more than one path at a time, Legend. You know this."

"But can Paths be nested? Step thirty-seven, start path forty-two when path forty-two is complete see step thirty-eight."

"There's no answer that I can give you that will satisfy you."

"I suppose there isn't," Legend said. "Not for the long term. Because I know what your power is."

"What the hell do you think you were doing?" Alexandria demanded as she stormed through the door.

"Drop the angry act, Rebecca," Legend sighed. "We both know how hard it is for you to feel much of anything for real. You're the second most manipulative person I know, but a pale shadow to the master."

Alexandria froze then shrugged and casually pulled off her helmet, shaking out her hair as Eidolon entered the room behind her, followed by Doctor and Number Man. "I have the FBI going through my office on _your_ say-so."

"I only asked them to go over the Protectorate," Legend said mildly. "It follows they would search Alexandria's office."

"And Chief Director Costa-Brown's?" Doctor Mother asked.

"You could ask them, of course," Legend said. "I wouldn't know."

"What were you thinking about in Brockton Bay?" Rebecca demanded.

"I think I removed a very dangerous villain, one willing to repeatedly compromise the Unwritten Rules _and_, potentially, the Truce. I also gained us access to the second most powerful precog I've ever heard of, and turned a talented team of would-be villains to the side of good. It's amazing, really. Three of them had their cases badly mishandled by the PRT, which was only acerbated by the Protectorate as a result."

"You cut Director Piggot out of the loop, compromising every regulation—we _agreed_. Nonpowered _have_ to have control."

"Director Piggot was running an off the books private investigation into the civilian identity and history of one of the members of the Undersiders. And PRT East-North-East was badly penetrated by villainous forces. I mean, Jesus, Rebecca. Coil's civilian identity was a PRT _contractor_, and his power potentially let him get everything he didn't have as part of his job! And don't get me started on the lecture I got from one of the leaders of the local ILA chapter about how NEPEA-5 was protectionist, economically disruptive, and had directly contributed to the rise of villainism over the last fifteen years."

Legend sat back in his chair. "What's really going on here? What's the real plan, Rebecca?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit," Legend said. "You don't sleep, you're a workaholic with a tendency towards micromanagement, but you are also almost insanely competent. Are you really telling me it escaped your notice that Canary was given a bogus brute rating to justify the heavy restraints in court?"

"Not bogus, unconfirmed."

"She was arrested last _year_," Legend said. "Her trial was delayed until after the Simurgh made an appearance. In all that time it was never confirmed? How many other cases like that are the FBI going to find?"

"The situation is—"

Legend's hand slammed down on the table. "How many others? How many have been branded a villain because of their trigger event, Rebecca? How many have you branded villains because of their family, or because they did what they had to do to survive, or because they were fucking _Mastered_?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rebecca said.

"Hellhound," Legend said flatly. "Bitch, as she prefers. Trigger event. Regent, aka Hijack, aka Jean-Paul _Vasil_—"

Eidolon stirred "Heartbreaker's son?"

"Committed a murder while under his father's control," Legend said. "Apparently was eventually able to break it."

"That's impossible."

Legend gave Rebecca an unimpressed look. "Confirmed by Panacea. Many Masters, especially those capable of exerting control over other people, are at least resistant to other Masters. You know this, Rebecca. For that matter, even if he wasn't, resistant, actually talking with him might open up new avenues to helping other Mastered people."

He stood. "I once counted some of the people in this room among my dearest friends. I'm not sure I know any of you anymore. I wonder if I ever did."

The woman in the lab coat stirred. "You know the ends towards which we work."

"And what are you willing to justify to get them?" Legend asked without turning from Rebecca.

"Anything," she said simply.

Legend froze. Very slowly he turned towards the woman. "I have had to kill people for doing a lot less than 'anything,'" he said in a very even tone.

"And I'm fully prepared to face the consequences of those actions," Doctor Mother said. "Once humanity has survived."

Legend shook his head. "No, you aren't. You aren't that selfless. Oh, you mean it about humanity surviving. But you don't see any chance for you to. You have no intention of enough records surviving for history to come to curse your memory, never mind actually sitting through a trial. They're pretty words. Maybe they even help you sleep better at night. But that's all they are to you. Words. Never deeds."

Eidolon shifted. "Legend—"

"As I said," Legend said flatly. "The second most powerful precog I've ever met." He paused, looking around the room. "I'm going home. I'm going to kiss my son goodnight, and make love to my husband, and then I'm going to go out and do my job. Be a hero. _Someone_ in this room needs to be. Doorway, New York skyline."


End file.
